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Stick to your guns and this thread man, might as well right?

3 (21.4%)

Indifferent/ Either is fine

2 (14.3%)

Fresh start! More violence! More weres! More Elves!

9 (64.3%)

Total Members Voted: 14

[Splint]

The wagons rolled.

It had been one month since they left the heartland in Kodor's Basin. They were rolling Eastward, to re-establish contact with their eastern kin, and help them stave off the encroaching elf invaders. The order had come down from the capital of Grandcloister itself. This had to be done. And so they rolled.

Before long, they had come upon the staging area Lushcastle in Kodor's Basin. It was a typical fortress of only 30 or so permanent residents, set in that  great basin. The trek had been hard, and cost them two wagons and 18 dwarves, but they'd reached the staging ground. The wagons join four more, and became 12, with 84 dwarves in  total for their group. After a week's rest, the wagons roll once more.

"We're all doomed." A dwarf wearing a steel barbute named Dugan Claspjoys says.

"What makes you say that? Sure we got caught in that avalanche near Laborstandard, but should be smooth sailing for here." Said another wearing carpenter yellow.

"Gnomes will attack us for our drink. Rocs for our camels and horses. Refugees for our food. Once we leave the basin, we're at the mercy of nature and the products of the elven war machine." Dugan answered. Quite the dour fellow it seemed. But he raised valid points; the wagons are pulled predominantly by camels and horses, large and tempting targets. Their wagons laden with drink and food for both the journey and to bolster supplies at Sealglaze. And as predicted, they were attacked two days into the mountains, and daily problems would arise.

A pair of Rocs carried away two wagons, camels and all (including a miner,) crippling their supplies and taking many weapons on this first week into the mountains. A soldier tried to find the nest, but he was forced to give up after several days (and his horse nearly dying of exhaustion.)

The second, they were assailed by troglodytes by day. They'd likely come from a cave or sinkhole in the area. By night, Dugan and others were left to fend off what seemed to be a hordes of abnormally thirsty gnomes. They toppled a wagon and even killed a milker before they were driven off. Not bad  for such tiny things.

The Third week, they ran into a group of human refugees. Already they lost 10 dwarves to dehydration and hunger thanks to the loss of many supplies and more than half of their drink reserves being guzzled by the gnomes the week before. The guards were tired, angry, and sober. The refugees were turned away, and killed on the spot when they refused the first time to leave them. They were looted for what little they had (a steel flanged mace likely looted from out east,) three empty barrels, a wheelbarrow, and two dogs that had been towing the wheelbarrow.

Three days passed without incident when an ettin of all things rampaged through their camp in the wee hours of the morning, smashing four wagons and killing 20 dwarves before the soldiers could gather their wits and their weapons. It was felled by a combination of a spear and a crossbow bolt.  It wasn't dead, but on it's face with a bolt in one ankle and a spear lodged in its chest was good enough. They wound up abandoning five wagons and all the goods therein in their haste to escape the giant before it came to or its roars summoned more of its kin.

By the time they could see Sealglazes in the distance a month an a half later, only 19  of them remained. The wagons rolled into a suspiciously empty countryside, and they found themselves ambushed by elven bandits hiding in the hillocks. Two dwarves were killed by the storm of arrow fire, but their siege crossbows, though cumbersome, evened the odds They sent many elves into the dirt never to rise again. Knowing they'd meet no friendly faces, they moved onto the City itself.

More ettins awaited them. Two in fact. As they searched for even a ghost to tell them what had happened, they stumbled upon the beasts... Well, making more ettins. Five more dwarves were dead and three unaccounted for during the escape. As they passed into the ruins of a human town, the battered group, reduced to nine and two wagons plus a small pack of dogs (the two taken from the refugees and their litter of three) their poor luck continued unabated.

Kobolds of all things attacked them, darts and arrows flying from rooftops onto the remains of the caravan. The two remaining soldiers fought back, making due with a single siege crossbow, two fighting knives, and a spear. 7 dwarves hid from the battle (under the threat of Dugan beating them all to death himself if they didn't do as he said,) and waited until the next morning to reclaim a wagon and whatever the kobolds left. They found the remains of a grisly scene, the two soldiers stabbed and shot many times over, and over a dozen kobolds dead, four having been beaten to death by Dugan with his own helmet, his spear being found nailing a kobold to a wall and his knife wedged in another's skull. They couldn't find the other soldier's crossbow or knife, and they left the rest, not wanting to linger near the bodies.

Someone picked up Dugan's barbute and added it to the collection of supplies they still had, and set about looting some of the hillocks for supplies as they went, as their drink was virtually gone. Fortune favored them and they weren't accosted further, and they found various supplies in the ruins they passed, but they couldn't find an anvil to replace the one they'd lost during the first Ettin attack.



The expedition leader, Lolor, could be seen building a rough circle with an "X" in it over the town's civic building in soap he'd found in a hovel. He'd done the same with wood at Sealglazes, and near the hillocks they passed or looted with some unattended rocks, hay, or whatever else. The message was clear to the crew slated to follow them: "NOT SAFE." When he finished, he left a crude copy of their map, marking various locations, and they moved on. He also noted that the pups were dead or had wandered off, though another haggard looking mutt had apparently decided the live dwarves were better than the dead ones.



Overall, their supplies weren't... Really all that great. For seven, the food and drink was adequate, but refugees were inevitable, as were general immigrants. They had two suits of simple armor plus Dugan's helmet, and some weapons, but only one of them knew how to do anything with them. Only one of them knew anything about mining, one was a superfluous craftsman, and two others were but unskilled laborers. Even Lolor had to admit there was little use for his knowledge, as he was just a trader, and not that great of one either, just an assistant. They found a box of bronze-making ore, lignite, coal, and several bags of bricks, and they'd picked up some granite along the way in case they needed it, several small kegs of alcohol and a barrel of preserved lobsters, probably meant to be sold originally. The only supplies from the Basin left were two picks and a barrel of cranberries.

This had already proven disastrous, but Lolor insisted the press on to the indicated location set up shop. "Unless of course," he reasoned, "you want to fight the ettins again." After a day spent deliberating the pros and cons of trying to make it back to Lushcastles and the safety of the Basin vs pressing on, they decided that they'd never survive the trek over the mountains, ettins or not, and continued forward. And before long, well...



They'd decided on Spiritnet, as it was what one of them had shouted when shaken from his nap when they arrived. Well, sort of. It sounded better than "SMIDNNAT!" Dumat pushed the flap at the front of the wagon aside. "Hey bossman, we got a snowstorm ahead. What should we do?"

"How close are we?" Lolor asked, shifting his weight to try and get a look through the opening.

"Mountain's are in view, but we aren't quite on'em." The current driver, Fath, said.

Lolor sighed. "Fuck it. Pull into that thicket of trees and unharness the horses. This is as good a place as any." The driver complied, and they pulled the flaps tight, letting the storm hit, and pass them. And in due time, it did. They got out to find the horses fine, the trees having protected them from the worst of the storm. They took off the flap and used it to start a small fire, and went from there.

"Right then," Lolor said, clapping his hands together. "Olon, you're with Fath on mining duty. For intents and purposes, you're both diggers." The two dwarves nodded and grabbed their picks in anticipation of orders.

"Dumat, Zefon?" He asked, turning to the relevant dwarves.

"What?" Dumat asked.

"Think you guys can get to work clearing some trees?"

"Consider it done." Zefon answered, and they got their hatchets.

Lolor marked some trees with a small sharpened rock and furrowed some soil marking where to start digging. "See what you can find." He said. "Besides shale and lignite." Dumat and Zefon started on some almond trees when Kubuk told them to leave the apple tree in the middle of the stairwell markings. "Why leave that tree along? There's plenty more down the hill." Lolor asked.

"Because," Kubuk said, turning to the Merchant, "I'll need something I can water with elf blood."

"That uh... That's pretty fucked up Kubuk."

"Well, they'll come trying to help the poor little apple tree. I'm going to help them help it. By turning them into plant food."

<+++++++>

Welcome you poor fools. Welcome to Spiritnet.
We are surrounded.

I have decided to establish a community game to chronicle my goal to have our macedwarf Kubuk kill 500 elves with his mace. Yes, I am dedicating an entire fort, thread, and story to a dwarf beating 500 people to death with an overly fancy metal stick. How will I do this you ask? I'm glad you asked.

I modded elves to compose several entities; this is possible because entities can in fact share a creature. There's six in all with the altered vanilla elf entity. Here's the list of what I did.

• I made them hostile (removing [INTELLIGENT] and replacing it with only [CAN_LEARN])
• Gave them additional supporting biomes (specifically the same ones humans use, allowing them to directly compete and muscle them out,)
• Set them to be active year round. We have 5 hostile elf entities around us, and they can't hurt the heartland, meaning that the closer elves have only us to target.
• They mature at 6 years, and crap out two sprog at a time.
• Gave one of the entities access to metal (I think.) This to represent looted equipment and using destroyed human buildings to fuel forges; after all, to this particular group of elves, the wooden buildings are long since passed, and it's only fitting that they serve the elven people one last time to make more effective weapons for them. Provided I remembered to give them the needed jobs.[/center]
  
  

CHALLENGES
Hope you guys'll have more for me, but here's what I have to start with.

Five-hundred [500] elf kills by a single soldier, or barring that, with a single weapons - Our starting flanged mace: My main goal first and foremost, is 500 elves beaten to death at the least with the same mace.

LIMITED RIGID ARMOR: Gauntlets, helmets, and officer's body armor. Everything else will either be leather, cloth, or chain. Don't want to be totally safe right?

LIMITED TRAPS: Exactly what it sounds like. Traps won't be concentrated save 12 (three on each side of the main gate, and six to slow down intruders who get into the courtyard.) Any others will be scattered and essentially act like single-use booby traps.

NO MAGMA: While I usually turn to magma eventually, if only for getting rid of piles of junk gear from invaders or from training smiths between caravans, here I won't be doing so. Charcoal and coke only for furnaces (I reserve the right to coke since it is in effect just decayed and compressed plants.)

TRADE LIMITATIONS: I won't be using any of the well-known methods of buying out caravans (not that I do normally; I just don't want any of you gits suggesting it.) The fall supply train may end up with weapons or armor, but they aren't touching my lavish meals and my spiked balls unless they have something I absolutely must have.

FOUNDER PROFILES
Note, I hadn't seen the preference for flanged maces when I picked my macedwarf, so I switched Kubuk and Fath around; Fath can still help in a pinch of there's a bear attack or something though. Everyone started as unskilled peasants except Lolor, Datan, and Kubuk.

Spoiler: Spoilered for size and number (click to show/hide)

Stonecrafter


"Official" leader and woodworker


Miner


Kubuk McBludgeonskulls


Current unoffical leader


Our other Miner


And Urist McWoodworker No.2

GODS
Lastly, we have our gods for the OP. The Factional Mountain worships 11 gods. Below is conjecture based on their spheres.

Spoiler: The gods! (click to show/hide)

FAMILY OF CREATION
Gods associated most closely to nature and the rise of The Factional Mountain as a nation, composed of Kodor and her son, Alron.

Kodor: Associated with creation, Kodor is depicted as a female dwarf can be assumed to be The Factional Mountain's chief deity. Through her, the region known as Kodor's Basin came to be.
Alron: Son of Kodor, Alron is associated with Mountains and Mountains alone, and he nursed the protodwarves in the Basin of Kodor to full civilization, protecting them and most other dwarves from most hazards with his immense stoney body. His father is unknown, but believed to be the god of dwarven nation called The Sizzling Canyon in the south known only as "The Tufted Pelt," a god of lust and depravity.

FAMILY OF BATTLE
Gods associated with the military most directly, they are seen as a single family of gods.

Eges, The Hardy Perfection: Associated with Victory and depicted as a male dwarf, he is seen as the husband of Kat Arrowcovered, and a patron god and guardian of soldiers.
Kat Arrowcovered: Associated with War, Fortresses, Chaos, and rather oddly, jewels. Kat is depicted as a female dwarf and seen as wife of Eges, The Hardy Perfection. She is seen as mentally disturbed, but also terrifyingly intelligent, with Eges keeping her chaotic tendencies in check.
Berul: Associated with charity and sacrifice, Berul is seen surprisingly as a god heavily associated with war, and believed to be the son of Eges and Kat. This is because military service is considered perhaps the ultimate expression of giving to The Factional Mountain.

Uthgur: Male god of torture, he clove Alron asunder in a slow and horrible manner, creating the massive mountain pass that allowed the elves to all but obliterate the dwarven peoples of The Manor of Frenzies,The Ink of Machines, and The Maroon Seal. He is not part of any family of gods, and believed to be a "rogue god."

FAMILY OF PROSPERITY
Gods associated with crafts and commerce, they are seen as a single family of gods.

Asmel: The goddess of trade and commerce (and by extension honesty,) she is the mistress of all merchants, whether they know it or not. Those who do right by her can expect spectacular profits while those who draw her ire (such as by cheating others and going back on their word,) can expect to become heavily in debt in short order. She is wife to Asmel and mother of the deities Doren, Asen, and Goden.
Istrath Ivorypearls, The Golden Treasure: God of wealth (and by extension ambition and greed,) he is typically depicted as wearing the finest giant cave spider silk and unicorn leather attire. He is the father of Doren, Asen, and Goden.
Doren Diamondcanyon, The Steel of Mountains: Goddess of metal and as such, patron god of smiths. However, without her sister Asen, she is nothing.
Asen, The Cobalt Earth: Sister of Doren, she is associated with minerals and as such is the patron god of miners.
Goden: Associated with crafts, inspiration, labor, and poetry, he is brother to Doren and Asen and provides the inspiration to craftsmen whether they worship him or not. THose who take few breaks are said to be the Blessed of Goden, as they feel little need to take breaks and continue to labor instead.

[Splint]

--POPULATION--
Numbers will overlap if we have lots of irregulars in the military (most likely marksdwarves) Forumite-owned residents will be listed under the numbers.
You'll learn names of the unclaimed not-founders as people die in accidents, failed moods, or the most unlikely, in battle. The dead will be listed in a post all their own.

Laborers: 67
Soldiers (full or part time:) 16
Children: 0

<FORTRESSBORN>
Laborers: 0
Soldiers: 0
Children: 16

TOTAL: 83

--CLAIMED RESIDENTS--
Woodworker Dumat Pagecrests [Splint]
Tanner/Hauler Trogdor Ringtax[Ardent Debator]
Farmer/Soon-to-be Siegedwarf NCommander Netwasp[NCommander]
Sergeant/Furnace Operator Senshuken Cloisterrhyme [Senshuken]
Knife-fighter/Fisherdwarf Imush Goldenduty [4maskwolf]

[Splint]

HONORED DEAD
Here, we of course have the dead.

Total Casualties: 9
Fortress: 9
Caravan: 0
Updates since last loss of dwarven life: 0

FAILED MOOD

ACCIDENTAL

INVADER/ANIMAL
Hunter Mestthos Luredearths, Arms torn off by Cave Crocodile Perplexworth, bled to death
Planter Meng Shieldwater, Bitten and shaken to death by Cave Crocodile Perplexworth
Swordsdwarf Kib Parchglove, feet sliced off with a wooden glaive, bled to death
Macedwarf Bembul Ragcleaned, stabbed to death with a wooden sword-staff

MEGABEAST/TITAN/FB
Soaper/Furnace Operator Vucar Yawnsling: Chest crushed by Forgotten Spider Beast
Artifact Maker/Legendary Bonecarver Dumat Beltcraft: Head pierced by Forgotten Spider  Beast fang
Founder/Legendary Stonecrafter Datan Kindledboat: Lower body smushed by Forgotten Spider Beast
Speardwarf Ingish Crewboard: Webbed/Head stomped on by Forgotten Spider Beast
Farmer Sakzul Purplecave, Leg ripped off by an Ettin, bled to death

[Splint]

COMMAND LOG
The update archive of course! Can't have any forts in this board without it!

LOG 1: Boarsmasher
LOG 2: Toy Soldiers
LOG 3: Militia's Proving
LOG 4: The Spider
LOG 5: Spotted Spider

[Splint]

RESIDENTIAL ENTRIES
Take a wild guess.

NCommander's Journal
NCommander's Journal 1

Splint OOC
Random drawings 1

[Splint]

The following is the “Command Log” of the fortress of Spiritnet. As per tradition, the current leader is to use this volume or volumes to document the life of the fortress. It is the year 282, and we are located in the central Ageless Realms, just outside a mountain range called The Spine of Shoving. We are here to lend aid to our brethren in the north, beyond the protection of Kodor's Basin, due to recent invasions from outside the region to the east.

So begins Spiritnet's duty. We will likely be the only fortress for miles around, unobstructed by mountains, lakes, or seas, making us the best target. I can only hope we aren't consumed by elves, their bears or only Kodor knows what else might be here, above or below.

~Dumat Pagecrests,
Expedition Leader of Spiritnet


YEAR 1
WRITER: DUMAT PAGECRESTS
SITE LEADER: DUMAT PAGECRESTS
POPULATION: 7

GRANITE 25



Two weeks have passed since the storm passed, more or less. I've been elected as official leader on the grounds that I know  best how the average dwarf thinks, because despite my assertiveness, I am a coward on the inside. All I was intended to do was provide basic labor until the fortress could sustain itself, and return home. I'm... Well, scared. Scared I'll never see Combinebolt again.

I dunno why I was elected in favor of Lolor. Sure, he can be a bit of a jerk, but he knows what he's doing; He was supposed to lead caravans to and from here; it's why his employer sent him. If he can't lead dwarves, than his caravan company couldn't trust anyone to. But enough of that. I've told him he's in charge of trade when fall comes, and that he's still in charge, since he knows what to do. But enough of that.

We've dug downward somewhat, found numerous veins of lignite, in addition to what we saw topside. Fath spent a week training the dogs we had before finally doing what Lolor said and helping Olon, and we realized that much of the topsoil is composed of some kind of tightly packed yellow sand. I've also included a crude  map of our vicinity, as seen above.





Datan, Kubuk, and Lolor don't have any tools to help with digging and out wood needs are covered for now. I was going to ask Lolor if he'd mind picking fruit when summer came, since there's ample almond, apricot, and cherry trees around. Said he and Kubuk would do it, but it'd be wise to have some stepladders made once Zefon is done making the beds, chairs, and tables.

Kubuk has also taken on the dogs as... Well, companions wouldn't be quite right, but he can't defend the rest of us alone. Assistants I guess. Right now our only company is a pair of eagles, but temperate forests like this are often home to bears, badgers, and wolves. All it takes is two or three badgers to kill a dwarf. Thank the gods we didn't see anything giant on the way here. Otherwise we'd be dead for sure if a group of giant badgers showed up.



SLATE 2

Datan's going to try and till some fields, get them ready for the cave wheat we managed to save when we fled Sealglazes. Zefon and I are splitting logs in half; still logs, but the two halves equal a whole block of floor! The others are going to floor over one of the rooms in out little hidey hole.



SLATE 5

We discovered perhaps the ultimate expression of anti-elf material: Petrified wood! Wood that hated being a tree so badly, that when it died, it turned itself into rock! Personally, I wish all trees would make such a decision and embrace Alron's stoney nature.



SLATE 17





The snow's finally receded for the most part, and we have the floors laid out in the shelter. Datan's using some our bricks to build a workshop so she can kill some time. So I decided (with some advising from Datan herself, to clear some trees leading south and get a depot built. Better ready ahead of time and all that!

SLATE 20



I saw Kubuk watching the woods today from the wagon. Asked him what was wrong and he said he saw some boars while he was taking a walk and wants to try and take them on with the dogs. He's not had much to do besides polish Dugan's barbute and the mace, and it's clear he's anxious.

Told him if he's gonna try fighting boars, he should probably see about using that hewing spear instead. He told me to stuff it because he likes flanged maces better. Said that was fair and told him to just hold off until we have somewhere to store the meat, and that he'd be responsible for processing the bodies. He's agreed that's fair, and I went and talked to Lolor and he said he'd be fine with handling tanning the skin and that he'd been able to collect a small amount of what we'd need to tan a small amount of stuff along the way through the ruins back in the pass.

SLATE 25

Saw Datan and Kubuk talking. She told Kubuk she'd be happy to use some of the bones from whatever he kills to put a new grip and maybe some other decorations on his mace and helmet if he'd like since she has the tools. One can only hope she doesn't go and cut herself with a scrimshaw knife or something.

SLATE 28

Kubuk went out after the food store was partly finished. He came back telling us it took him a while to actually work up the nerve to attack the boars, and even then it took him for ever to run one down. The highlight of the story? When he told us about what he did to one of the boar's eyes. He says he didn't get scared, says he just needed to calm himself down after all the death we've seen before. But there's some stuff I don't think he's telling us. But this also makes him the only one of us who's ever killed anything.





FELSITE 5



Datan made good on her promise! She even did it without stabbing herself or dropping the mace on her foot or something. She put a new grip on the mace to replace that nasty worn down leather one it originally had. She's even adding bone decorations to the barbutes we have, some bone, and some hoof. Same treatment for the hewing spear too.

FESLITE 25

Lolor's been busy. He's set up a depot with some proper planks Zefon and I made, and laid out a plan for housing. He wants to set us up in pairs with larger than average rooms (partly to make sure Fath and Datan don't kill eachother,) which will also serve well for small families.



HEMATITE 1



All I can say is thank Kodor. The boars didn't kill Kubuk, he hasn't tried to pick a fight with the moose wandering around, and we have some stuff to trade, a place to sleep, eat, and the flowers coming in mean fruit will be available soon. Course, we'll need barrels, but there's plenty of trees to provide, and we're decent enough carpenters to make pegs and rims for them in place of metal fittings.



Plus, I have to say, Dugan's old helmet looks mighty snazzy with the new decorations!


Okay! So, we now officially have lift off for the fort! A quiet start, but for these surroundings that's to be expected. I did some preliminary embarks elsewhere, but the regular animals were consistently not what I wanted to see (ogre for example.) It doesn't help the only terrifying biomes were harmless (normal, if giant sized animals,) or would have put two other civs between us and the intended enemy.

We have some very very basic things covered and we're working on more suitable housing, have underground fields ready for when we have barrels to spare, a depot, trade goods, and killed some boars! Well, killed two and the dogs mauled another (they broke off when it fell into a pond.)

I did some legend diving as well, and we may well be facing some of the metal-wielding elves (again, assuming I modded them right.) And they have thousands of bodies and hundreds of animals, so we're sure to have some fun.

Now then,  post away! I'm going to continue with the basics of housing and whatnot. But while that's going on, what should I do next?

[NCommander]

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a seige engineer or seige operator (or both!)

[Ardent Debater]

If your Dwarfing, I'd like to be a Mentally Unstable Hauler.

[Splint]

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a siege engineer or siege operator (or both!)

Indeed I am! Any specific names in mind?

Since we'll probably get one, it's worth a shot! If we don't get one  next wave, I'll bullshit up a reason to make someone start making catapults. And with a little time doing solo drills I might even get them to the point they'll stand and fire thier weapons rather than abandon the engine.

Oh, and good luck with Gemgorge!

If your Dwarfing, I'd like to be a Mentally Unstable Hauler.

Sure thing, I'll have your dwarf come in the spring migrant wave. Any specific name?

[NCommander]

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a siege engineer or siege operator (or both!)

Indeed I am! Any specific names in mind?

Since we'll probably get one, it's worth a shot! If we don't get one  next wave, I'll bullshit up a reason to make someone start making catapults. And with a little time doing solo drills I might even get them to the point they'll stand and fire thier weapons rather than abandon the engine.

Oh, and good luck with Gemgorge!

I usually use nicknames as that, so whatever dwarf name they have, with their nickname being NCommander (I use the show nickname as middle name option in init.txt). The best way to get them to fire and not run is to basically set up a kill corridor of 80 tiles long; I've managed to get ballistia to work in this configuration though they're hilariously bad at killing stuff.

Something like this

Code: [Select]

-----------------------------------------------------
CCC....................................._...................
CCC......20 spaces of floor ......_...................
CCC....................................._....................
-------------------------------------+---------------

Invaders path to the door, but due to the 20 space gap which is channels, the capaulters don't run.

Also, Gemgorged will be interesting. This is my first time playing DF in freaking ages and aside from a few test forts, first time seriously playing DF2014. Should I sign you up for a dorf?

[Ardent Debater]

His name shall be Trogdor, and if at all possible please dorf him with someone who has high strength. Also, That's Awesome writing, Please keep it up.

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a seige engineer or seige operator (or both!)

+1 to petrified wood Irony.

[Splint]

HEMATITE 11

Quiet, aside from the sound of digging and scraping wood. All of us of us have beds to call our own now. Datan and I have one room, Zefon and Lolor the other. Datan's also made a figurine of me surrounded by crutches. It's either a subtle jab at my job as leader, or because I like crutches. I'm guessing it might be both. Kubuk's also had Zefon throw together an “armor stand” (looks more like a crude practice dummy,) and is standing guard over our makeshift weapon and armor stock.







I'm gonna keep this first tome in my room until I'm replaced or killed. With that said, I'm going to head topside and help Zefon make some extra niceties. Cabinets, chests, maybe a a couple racks for those of us with tools.

MALACHITE 9



Erush, Fish Cleaner
Ast, Unskilled Labor, Erush's Husband
Vucar, Soaper
Stakud, Leatherworker/Lye Maker
Obok, Hunter
Moldath, Clothier, Obok's Wife
Rovod, Farmer, Obok's Grandmother
Domas, Farmer

Refugees have arrived, 8 in all, apparently they were from a group meant to reinforce Sealglazes, but they were driven off course by beasts in the mountains around Kodor's Basin and shot up found once they reached the forest on the other side. Say they found Lolor's map and made a copy to follow. I've listed them above, and Kubuk's taken Ast on as a Shield-brother since he says he wants to be a legendary warrior. Lolor has him smoothing the bedrooms now, to give him something to do. Obok's also heading out, because he says he saw a wolverine on the way in that “Looked delicious.”



MALACHITE 16

The miners were digging a little bit more stairwells and hit tetrahedrite! It's not great, but it'll still be more than enough to stop a wooden saber or halberd.

MALACHITE 19

Was worried that wolverine had somehow killed Obok . Damn thing came bounding into the surface camp with Obok on its tail, and when it spun around to get away from Kubuk's dogs, he put a bolt right in its head! Damn fine shot honestly.



MALACHITE 21

Remember when I wrote that we wouldn't need to worry about giant animals?



A tribe of owlmen say otherwise.

MALACHITE 27

An owlman got too close to the wagon. Actually, most of them did. And the dogs went after them. One's dead, and several are injured. I... I won't lie, I got scared pretty badly when I saw all the blood. Thought the owlmen would come after us. So did Datan. She was up making bolts for Obok when the owlmen blundered into us. Erush took care of the corpse; we've just starting dumping garbage in a pond.





GALENA 11

We have a small storage space for our ores and lignite now! And the diggers are working on a place to store weapons and ammo. Ast says there was another group who managed to survive the ambush, but they got split up along the way here by a storm.



GALENA 18

The tribals are gone, and the military gear is safely tucked away inside. Thank the gods. I was sincerely worried a kobold would pinch one of the hauberks! Nasty little bastards, can't be having that since none of us has any real clue on how to make armor. Or weapons, unless you count sharp bone slivers with flights in them anyway. Obok's bored though. Eagles make for poor hunting I'm guessing.

LIMESTONE 1



Season of truth. Hopefully the supply caravan will make it here. But, on the upside, we have a still! And thanks to Domas and Rovod we have ample fruits to brew. Good thing two, we only had somewhere around 20 or 30 pints left. Now to make some barrels. I'm not sure if we have enough...

I wonder if that other group had anyone who's good at bookkeeping?

LIMESTONE 3



Spotted two thieves. One scarpered in short order, the other... Well, for want of better wording, the thing ran in circles panicking while a dog chased it. Ast and Kubuk are heading out after him.

LIMESTONE 3-2



I really wish Moldath hadn't asked for a blow-by-blow from her husband. Kubuk caught up to the kobold when one of his dogs managed to land a bite to slow it down. Ast finished retelling what he saw with “In short, he beat that little thief's ass!”

LIMESTONE 14



The supply crew is here. We took some of the kobold's belongings plus the stuff Datan made. I met with the liaison and apparently there's some reclamation work going on back in the Basin. I put in an order for bronze and iron ores, flux stone, platinum bars and ore, and steel bars.Call it a hunch, but I don't think we'll find any of those ores here.



And amazingly enough, they asked for stuff we can easily mass produce here in turn! Oh, and I asked them a sincere question.



Who in the everloving FUCK is going around swabbing fucking gremlins for sweat, and who on Kodor'green earth would buy such a thing?!

LIMESTONE 21

Trade's done; the caravan cleaned us out but we got what we needed in turn. Some quarrels for siege crossbows we don't have, bolts for Obok, a few kegs of ale, wine, and beer, some leather, an anvil, and some bars and cut gems.

SANDSTONE 4

Dogs killed a turkey, Obok brought in another. Datan's making bolts out of their bones, and he's going after a wolverine next. I also had another episode when I passed the dumping pond. An apricot dropped in and I thought the owlman skeleton was getting up.

Datan and Erush kept making fun of me all day today for it.

SANDSTONE 8



Saw Obok out hunting. Ran out of bolts before he could kill the wolverine, so he stabbed it. Good for him on being proactive! I've heard some hunters would give up and go home if they ran out of ammo mid hunt. Also this is going to sound really stupid since he carries that thing everywhere, but I never noticed it had a bayonet.

SANDSTONE 18

Two more people arrived, from Erush's group. Meng, a Farmer, and Shorast, a fishery worker. Shorast offered to take over accounting if we had somewhere for her to work with and rocks to make tab slabs. The marchants are also leaving tomorrow at sun up.

SANDSTONE 24

Lolor put Vucar to work on making coke and bronze for us. His response? To make 3 batches, and say “You know, this isn't really... Doin' it for me. Mind if I take a break?” Lolor says he was completely dumbfounded by that, and he plans to have a box of mugs rigged over Vucar's room while his roommate is out.



TIMBER 12

I saw Kubuk talking to Stakud today. She's going to try her hand at making armor, something about her knowing how leather armor works, so maybe she can make bronze armor. Oh, and some of the loose bolts Obok left outside were collected. Dunno how Vucar did it, but he managed to get enough material from the bolts to get a whole ingot! Also, Erush decided to help him out, says she can't exactly clean fish when the brook is frozen solid.



TIMBER 22



First masterpiece produced! Hard to find mugs of better quality outside Crystalclock really. Also, Kubuk has decided he's going to call all soldiers in this place “Wraiths” for some reason.

OPAL 2

We've started working on some basic defenses. Won't stop the most determined enemies from scaling them, but anything too stupid or disinterested to climb a wall will be kept at bay.



OPAL 4



Checked some of Datan's output for Lolor. One of them was an exceptionally made toy soldier, for part of the order the caravan put in, and I remembered all the time I spent playing with my own toy soldiers and elves when I was little... Y'know, it's funny. As kids we would play war with our little stone and wood toy fighters, and here we are so many decades later. Out in the middle of an elf-infested jungle with the intent to make war for real. Kind of funny really.

It's like we're the toy soldiers now.


Durdurr! The rest of the year. Alright, so we are very slowly getting the basics covered. Took until the latter half of summer to get any kind of food production going, and we are virtually defenseless save for Obok's bayonet crossbow, Kubuk and his dogs, and Ast. We'll most likely be within the population requirement (20) for elves to begin attacking.

Oh, and did I mention we're in a savage region? Because apparently we are, and now I'm worried giant badgers or something will show up and kill everyone. Because there's not a chance in hell three dogs and three dwarves with little experience can stop that. And on that note, we've killed a kobold. For some reason it didn't think to flee the map with the other guy and got beaten to death when a dog got a latching bite on him.

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a siege engineer or siege operator (or both!)

Indeed I am! Any specific names in mind?

Since we'll probably get one, it's worth a shot! If we don't get one  next wave, I'll bullshit up a reason to make someone start making catapults. And with a little time doing solo drills I might even get them to the point they'll stand and fire thier weapons rather than abandon the engine.

Oh, and good luck with Gemgorge!

I usually use nicknames as that, so whatever dwarf name they have, with their nickname being NCommander (I use the show nickname as middle name option in init.txt). The best way to get them to fire and not run is to basically set up a kill corridor of 80 tiles long; I've managed to get ballistia to work in this configuration though they're hilariously bad at killing stuff.

Something like this

Code: [Select]

-----------------------------------------------------
CCC....................................._...................
CCC......20 spaces of floor ......_...................
CCC....................................._....................
-------------------------------------+---------------

Invaders path to the door, but due to the 20 space gap which is channels, the capaulters don't run.

Also, Gemgorged will be interesting. This is my first time playing DF in freaking ages and aside from a few test forts, first time seriously playing DF2014. Should I sign you up for a dorf?

NCommander it is! And sure, why not. Probably won't be able to watch myself, but I'm sure it'll go wonderfully!

His name shall be Trogdor, and if at all possible please dorf him with someone who has high strength. Also, That's Awesome writing, Please keep it up.

Honestly, I think you should find a way to use that petrified wood against the elves. Catapults seem like a nifty idea though they remain pretty weak even in DF2014, but it would be great seeing the elves get smacked in the face with it.

Also, not sure if you're taking dwarvings, but if you are, AND you take up my idea, I'd love to be a seige engineer or seige operator (or both!)

+1 to petrified wood Irony.

Done and dusted, I'll see what I can do come spring.

Anyway, all is well, as is normal for a first year outside an instant death biome. Carry on gents.

[Splint]

OPAL 9



Datan's getting pretty good at making mugs. I sense a trend here.

OBSIDIAN 21

Things have been quiet lately. Thanks to work Fath and Datan haven't been at eachother's throats, tribals and theives have left us be, and we even have a dining room now! Sort of.



Still need more tables and chairs, but it should allow four parties at once when it's fully furnished! As an aside we've also used up all our leather on gloves, boots, armor, and some quivers.

YEAR 2
WRITER: DUMAT PAGECRESTS
SITE LEADER: DUMAT PAGECRESTS
POPULATION: 17



Supplies stable, dwarves content, yup! Good year. In fact, I think I'm going to hold a little new years get-together in our new dining hall!



GRANITE 14

So far so good. Worst things we've had to contend with are Obok complaining about the quarrels getting him confused constantly and the eagels being too high up from him to hunt! Best news? Datan's become quite skilled at making stuff out of rocks. Spiritnet brand mugs will flood the market come fall.

GRANITE 21

Some small fields  got tilled after the party; Seems Rovod's planting carrots, turnips, leek, and cranberries. Personally I could do without the turnips, but the rest sounds pretty good!



SLATE 7



First fortressborn! A happy lil girl named Bim. She certainly took a liking to some of the toy weapons. Bet the girl will wanna be a soldier when she grows up.

SLATE 19

People skirting the mountain have apparently heard of us. Talked with the caravan and came here. Among them was someone with skills as a suturer and wound dresser, so she's been elected as our CMD. Better than me or Stakud or whoever trying to figure out what's wrong with someone if they get hurt. There was also several individuals who expressed an interest in joining the militia; one even knows how to fight with maces and another with hammers!

Brings our total population... Wow, 42! We also need new weapons, and one of the new arrivals says that she can do it. Won't be anything fancy, but she can do it. She also offered to join the militia as a marksdwarf! Along with a woodworker who arrived who  knows how to make crossbows, we can get some weapons made! I let Kubuk handle the orders, but I figure I'll record them.

1 Bronze war pick (Sergeant Kikrost)
1 Bronze war hammer (Minkot)
1 Bronze Short arming sword (Kib)
1 Bronze spiked head flail (Kivish)
10 Wooden siege crossbows

It also appears that a stepladder went missing. I bet it was a kobold personally, but Obok said he thought he saw a coati out in the woods the other day. We're also working on building a small wooden eating place, mostly to fight cave adaptation. Someone floated adding windows to it, so I'm wondering if anyone knows anything about glassmaking.



FELSITE 15

Well, something... Untoward as happened. Seems one of the new arrives has gone off in the head, muttering about something nonsensical.



I've seen dwarves act like this before in Kodor's Basin. And considering his job, We'll need to haul ass and find some silk for him. I just hope whatever's in the caverns is something Kubuk and the others can handle. Lolor's giving orders to the diggers now, to dig out in four directions at the bottom of the central shaft a bit to see if they can find a cave complex.



FELSITE 21

Well, we've established two things. One, Dodok wants cloth, possibly cut gems (which thankfully we have some of those,) and a stone block. Second, we found a cavern! Well, sort of. I was honestly hoping we'd be on a ground level, but Olon broke through and almost went face first into a fungiwood.



They've dug out a spot down, and Moldath volunteered to head into the caves to get some webs, something about “Weavers need to stick together.” She took an awful risk going in there, but she knows what she's doing I guess. Just wish she didn't insist on bringing her baby with her.

Ast has made a sturdy  hatch to put over the stairs down in the meantime

HEMATITE 1



+++

“Help! By Kodor they're here! Help!” Everyone quieted at the frantic shouting.

Dumat looked towards the gate with some concern. “Zefon? What're you going on about now?”

Somewhere further away they could hear Zefon screaming “THE FUCKING ELVES ARE HERE!”

At that, everyone jumped as the militia rushed towards the gate, knocking over tables and their fellows as they grabbed their weapons on the way out of the small wooden building. Even with their largely patchwork armor, they looked intimidating. The rasp of a bronze arming sword leaving its sheath, the rattle of a flail's bronze chain, both of these were enough to cause an elf further into the woods to panic, screaming that she didn't want to die as she turned and fled, giving away more elves' positions.



As they charged the gate, Kubuk told his dwarves that now was the time to be brave, because the fortress needed them to be, and more importantly, one of their friends was in danger in the forest. Ast responded to this plea for them to stand and fight by sprinting forward and ramming the elf wrestler that was closest with his shield, driving his spear into the knife-eared menace's chest! When the elf hit the ground, he yanked his spear free and drove it into the elf's skull.



He whipped around, spear at the ready, yelling “WHO'S NEXT!?” An elf wielding a polished cherry wood bardiche answered his challenge, screaming at the top of his lungs as he charged the dwarf, while behind him, Kib dueld a better trained elf pikeman, and the two traded blows – including knocking out some of eachother's teeth, and Kubuk knocked down another bardiche-wielding elf with a bone-snapping strike of his mace.





As the elf hit the grass, Kubuk brought the mace down with a sickening squelch as the elf's wooden coif offered little resistance. In short order, two more axe-elves had leaped into the fray, one giving Kib a nasty splinter before Kubuk shattered an arm and Ast took off the other with a hasty swipe of his spear, which he then slammed down on the elf's neck when he hit the ground,  not so cleanly severing his head.



The last of the initial group hit the ground with a dull thud and clatter of wood when Ast impaled her with his spear and Kubuk landed a horrific blow, crunching bones and leaving her neck bent at an unnatural angle.



With that, he turned to Kivish, who sat helplessly staring at the corpses and blood. “Kivish!”

“Nuh... Wha?” The macedwarf shook his head.

“Kivish, y are a useless lump of shit! If you aren't going to fucking fight, find someone who will!” Kubuk was angry. Very angry. Kivish said he knew how to fight, and when the time came, it was the unskilled Kib who was proving a more reliable fighter, who already had three teeth knocked out of his head and been stabbed three times.

Kivish said nothing, fleeing into the walls and cowering behind a carpentry shop curled up in a ball, although he timed it perfectly for the two hammerdwarves they had to arrive. They ran out and were aghast at the blood, spilled entrails, and mangled bodies. However, the pressed forward, taking down a bow elf and disabling the fearful pike-elf (who Ast quickly put down for good with a thrust of his spear.) Kikrost however was jumped by a lone axe-elf, and when she killed it, the shock of what she'd just done, killing another thinking, feeling creature, an enemy or not, hit her like a full sack of granite bricks as the weight of her own mortality fell on her with the bits of brain when she'd reflexively pulled her war pick free.



Everyone was panting, tired, and scared at the end of it, but Zefon was still unaccounted for. “The rest of you stay here,” Kubuk said. “I'll get Zefon.” He looked back before running into the woods and added with a chuckle “Ast, let us take down some next time, yeah? You're making the rest of us look bad!”

Ast chuckled and gestured for him to go. “No promises bossman, now go and find Zef. Nobody'll be getting' by us.”

Kubuk came back in short order, Zefon close behind. His pursuer had given up and fled into the forest when most of his men had died. They also arrived just in time to see Minkot finish beating a kobold with a horrible sense of timing to death.

+++

HEMATITE 1-2

It's over. The elves are dead, and for the most part we're all okay, save for Kib who needs some stitches and lost some teeth, and Kikrost who got bruised up pretty good. Kubuk's fuming over Kivish running away, and I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for the fact Kikrost and Minkot jumped in when they did he'd have probably beaten him to death for dereliction of duty.

HEMATITE 13

Moldath said she thought she saw something in caverns and wants the militia to investigate. She's worried the hatch won't stop it if it's something dangerous.



Kubuk said he'd look into it, which I think means sending Kib and Ast to deal with it since they have sharp things and won't run away. I've also asked Lolor what we're going to do with the elves' wooden gear; we could probably talk someone into using the bow and arrows, kill elves with a certain bit of irony and all, but the rest? Well, he says we can just ship the rest of the... Er, “splintery polished tree spunk,” back home. “Proof of victory” he says.

Moldath also says Rovod needs to be fast. Doduk wants plant fiber cloth, and all she could see were two patches of pig tails. Hopefully Rovod will be able to get the plants, because it'd be terrible for a dwarf to die the way the insane do...


Hey. Hey guys. Lookit what we killed.

Elves.

So we've gotten a good bit of shit stored up to sell, Datan's a legendary stonecrafter,  got some eating spaces built, and sowed some fields! Hope you guys like turnips. There was also an unfortunate kobold mixed into the battle, and our first birth! Barring bad luck/timing on Moldath's part she'll be a fine addition to the military when she grows up.

We have a mood in progress, doomed to failure. The weaver wants plant fiber fabric which we have none of (not enough goods to buy a bin last year,) and I don't trust our herbalists to gather any pig tails in a timely manner. I mean, they'll try but it won't go over well. Especially if that cave croc catches them.

But anyway, we fought our first battle and injuries were minimal! Two dogs got injured, Kib needed to get his foot sewn up, and Kikrost got bruised up by the elves' one bowman, Kivish was useless, and a pile of corpses were left behind by the only survivor, a elf with a hafted mace (basically a staff since it's made of wood.) Ast made all of the others look bad, getting 6 kills during the skirmish.

Enjoy guys! Another update will come today.

[NCommander]

From The Journal Of NCommander

Freaking elves. Thinking that they are righter and "holier" than us. Bah, what a load. I loved listening to the stories of their slaughter at that party the other night, and couldn't help but think that I'd love to show them that the 'nature' they adore do much is just a means to our end, why is our rock and metal condemed by them, when they in turn use the wood they claim is so proper. Bah, the boss showed us a lump of petrified wood that we happened upon in digging the entrance, and I'd love to use it to show those tree-lovers what real nature is ...

[Spehss _]

Posting to watch. Great writing, Splint. That prologue describing the embark was a thing of beauty. You'd think DF sent more than just seven dwarves and a single wagon if the only thing to go by was your intro.